The Last Battlestar
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe... Caskett vs toasters. Based very loosely upon the original 1978 TV movie by Glenn A. Larsen. My offering for the CastleFicPromoter Halloween Bash. Cover Art by Lord of Kavaka and Beta read by Cofkett.
1. Prelude

**Chapter One  
Prelude**

* * *

" _There are those who believe that life here began out there.  
Far across the universe, with tribes of humans  
who may have been the forefathers  
of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans.  
Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man  
who even now fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens!"  
_1978 Battlestar Galactica opening.

* * *

 **Assembled Colonial Fleet  
Battlestar Atlantia**

Aboard the colonial fleet flagship Atlantia, the assembled members of the Quorum of the Twelve – a war council that had existed since the beginning of the Human/Cylon war nearly a thousand years before. So named because each of the twelve colonies of Kobol were represented - sat in comfortable chairs around a circular table with chalices of ambrosia and food from each of the colonies in ample supply. Quorum President Adar, Commander of the Atlantia stood at the head of the table and raised his own chalice of Ambrosia.

"Noble delegates," he began, "I know you are all anxious to return to your ships before we rendezvous with the Cylon delegation, but I think it appropriate to toast among ourselves the most significant event in the history of mankind since the war with the Cylons began. I would like to raise my chalice to you, not merely as the Quorum of the Twelve, but as my friends. In this, the seventh millennium of our recorded history since the exodus from Kobol, the human race will finally find peace after nearly ten centurons of war, thanks in no small part to the efforts of each of you."

* * *

 **Battlestar Galactica  
Launch Bay Alpha**

As President Adar and the assembled members of the Quorum of the Twelve raised their chalices to toast the end of the war, Captain Kate Beckett _(Call-sign "Athena")_ , Galactica's Wing Commander sat in her viper running the pre-flight checklist before lighting up its three engines and bringing her navigational computer online.

She could have assigned this reconnaissance patrol to a junior officer, but had accepted the training flight at Colonel Montgomery's personal request. Her wing-man wasn't just any nugget straight from the academy, he was Commander Victoria Gates' son, Zac.

It wasn't that she minded so much giving the youngest son of Galactica's Commander her personal attention in a training capacity – such pilot training was part of her job as Wing Commander - but whom she would be leaving in nominal command of Galactica's air wing in her absence.

On flimsy, First Lieutenant Richard Castle (call-sign "Starbuck") was more than qualified to command an air wing. He'd been a senior flight instructor at the Colonial Academy on Picon – _her_ flight instructor, in fact, though she doubted he remembered - and until a yahren ago held the rank of Captain himself, the Wing Commander aboard Battlestar Pegasus under Commander Jackson Hunt.

But that had been a yahren ago.

Scuttlebutt aboard ship – nobody knew how Flight Control Officer Tory Ellis found out about such things – said that his marriage had fallen apart after Pegasus' last combat patrol when he'd returned home unexpectedly to find her in bed with her producer. Upon his return to duty, he'd taken to gambling and carousing among other infractions, culminating in a fist-fight with Pegasus' XO in Silver Spar Squadron's wardroom.

Kate had no idea how _former_ Captain Castle had avoided a general court martial and a lengthy sentence aboard a prison barge, but he'd been demoted to First Lieutenant and transferred to the Galactica instead. An arrangement that had cost her a perfectly good exec, First Lt. Will Sorenson, who had jumped at the chance at a promotion and a command of his own.

Castle was – to his credit – an impressive pilot, with seventy-four Cylon raider kills painted on his viper and the only Colonial Warrior in nearly a hundred yahrens to be caught in the center of a Cylon pinwheel attack and survive. Outside of his cockpit, however, he was a hot mess. He took almost nothing seriously, nearly to the point of insubordination. He made her job harder and her administrative duties nearly impossible. In fact, Colonel Montgomery had been constrained to pull him out of hack so he could stand his post.

Somehow, though nearly all of the other warriors liked him and the junior pilots practically worshiped the ground he walked on. It was enough to drive her crazy, even though she privately found many of his escapades rather amusing. In fact, Montgomery liked to point out that she'd never had any fun until he'd come along. Not since her mother had died at the Battle of Proxima while she was at the Colonial Academy. Her father had taken her loss hard. Their relationship had only recently begun to heal in recent years.

Her ruminations on the current state of affairs were interrupted by FCO Ellis' voice in her helmet.

"Section Twelve, Launch Bay Alpha, stand by to launch fighter probe."

"Acknowledged, Galactica, all three engines are hot and my board shows green," Kate replied, doing her best to put the idea of Castle in charge of her air wing out of her mind and hoped Colonel Montgomery knew what he was doing.

"Vector coordinates coded and transferred," Tory stated coolly, "acknowledge."

"Acknowledged, Galactica," Kate stated back. This wasn't her first patrol and the litany was entirely familiar.

"Core systems transferring control to probe craft," Tory stated, "you may launch when ready."

Both Kate and her charge kicked on their turbos and launched into the darkness of space. They formed up once they'd cleared Galactica's outer perimeter and soon the two fighters were vectoring away from the fleet.

"I forget how different it is out here away from the core systems," Zac Gates commented.

"This is nothing, nugget," Kate replied. "Once the war is over, we might be able to get back to deep space exploration. That's where the real challenge will be. Now, cut the chatter and settle in on my wing while we check out the first leg of our patrol sector."

* * *

 **Battlestar Atlantia**

"Senator Bracken, my friend," Adar continued, waving the Senator from Libra into the chamber to join them, "this peace conference would not be possible without your tireless efforts. You have secured for yourself a place in the history scrolls."

"That the Cylons chose me as their liaison to the Quorum of Twelve," William Bracken replied, "was merely an act of providence, not skill."

"You sell yourself far too short, Senator," Adar admonished lightly.

A short time later – after a few more toasts to both Senator Bracken and the impending armistice with the Cylon Empire - the gathering began to break up. Some of the Commanders gathered to confer with Senator Bracken, eager for details on how he had managed to get through to the Cylons. The rest began to take their leave.

Commander Victoria Gates of the Battlestar Galactica and representative of Caprica stared darkly out the view port near where she stood, reflecting on the assembled fleet and the space beyond. Even a blind man could see that she was clearly unimpressed with the Senator who had drawn such praise from President Adar and the approval of the other delegates.

"I see this gathering is not a huge success with _all_ of my children," President Adar noted. The term of endearment he frequently used because he was so much older than the other commanders did little to soften Gates' mood as it normally would have.

"What waits for us out there concerns me a great deal more, Mr President," Gates replied.

"Surely you don't cling to your suspicions about the Cylons?" Adar replied. "They requested this armistice. They even released the few prisoners of war they were holding as a show of good faith. They _want_ peace."

"Forgive me, Mr. President," Gates retorted, "but the Cylons despise us with every fiber of their existence. For nearly a thousand yahrens, we have demonstrated our unwillingness to kneel before their empire. That we will fight tooth and nail to remain free of their domination. It was why they started this war in the first place. To them, we are a disease to be _purged_ , nothing more."

"But they _have_ come to see us differently," Adar explained. "Through Senator Bracken, they have sued for peace."

"Perhaps they have… for now," Gates responded, "but mark my words, there is more to this… _armistice_ than meets the eye. I only hope we can find out what that is before it's too late."

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** This is my entry for CastleFicPromoter's Halloween Bash. For those of you who are not familiar with it, this story is set in the universe of the original Battlestar Galactica from 1979. It has a lot of differences, especially in dialog and terminology. Enclosed is a glossary of terms for your perusal:**_

 **Time units:**

Millicenton: one second.

Centon: one minute

Centar: one hour

Cycle: one day

Secton: one week

Sectar: one month

Yahren: Colonial year

Centuron: Colonial century

 **Distance units**

metron: One meter

micron: one second of time when used in a countdown, but also a distance unit of approximately a kilometer.

 **Expletives:**

Frak: Fuck,

Felgercarb: Shit or bullshit depending on the situation,

golmogging also spelled gall-mogging (adjective).

 **Other terms:**

Daggit: a canine–like animal indigenous to Caprica

Pyramid: card game similar to poker

Cubit: unit of currency represented by rectangular gold coins

 **Figures of speech:**

Daggit dribble: a term used to condemn falsehood,

Daggit-meat: an expression of contempt

 ** _As always a heartfelt thank you to Lord of Kavaka for providing me with Cover art and especially to Cofkett, my long-suffering Beta. I sent her the first 3 chapters (a LOT even considering my usual M.O. of long ass chapters) all at once and she has performed flawlessly._**

 ** _Enjoy_**


	2. Springing The Trap

**Chapter Two  
Springing the Trap**

* * *

" _I'm a fan of good sci-fi. Star Trek, Battlestar, that Joss Whedon show.  
But Nebula-9? No, no. That's all phony melodrama and lifeless acting."  
_Castle episode 5x06 "The Final Frontier"

* * *

 **Patrol Alpha  
Near the Colonial Border**

"Captain," Ensign Gates stated over the guard channel, "anomalous reading on my long range scanner near the old sentry moon, Scimitar."

"Scimitar was laid waste in the first Cylon offensive nearly a thousand yahrens ago," Kate replied. "Who would possibly want to go there? The whole moon is still completely irradiated."

Kate paused for a moment, considering her next move.

"Hold here and cover me, while I go in for a closer look."

After Zac acknowledged her orders, Kate broke formation and turned her viper toward the old sentry moon and engaged her turbos. As she drew closer to the moon, - which had once held an observatory dating back the Exodus from Kobol, now an irradiated ruin - the indistinct anomaly on the scanners began to resolve itself into a ship.

"Well, now," Kate muttered, not realizing her comm channel was open, "would you look at that."

"What is it, Captain?" Zac asked, concerned, his thumb twitching toward the turbo button on his stick.

"Tell you in a flash," Kate replied, her viper's computer began comparing the E/M signature of the ship on her scanner to the files in its memory banks until it spat out a match.

"Warbook reads it as a Cylon tanker," Kate stated. "Scans read it as empty though."

"Captain," Zac replied nervously, "I have a funny feeling about this."

"Good instincts, nugget, so do I," Kate replied, "but we came here to look, so there's no sense turning back now."

Kate vectored her fighter to intercept, then made a slow orbit of the Cylon tanker, her scan resolution breaking up not far from the tanker's location barely registering the presence of a second ship nearby.

"There's another ship, tucked in nice and neat," Kate noted, "I can't get anything on the scanner, she must be jamming us."

"Warbook reads the outline as a freighter," Zac noted, checking his own readings.

"My ass she's just a freighter, not if she's jamming us," Kate shot back, "I intend to see what she's hiding."

Kate turned her fighter away from the Cylon tanker toward the freighter.

"There's nothing else out here but low level radiation and harmless stellar dust," Kate reported, "nothing to warrant this level of jamming."

Before Kate could add any further comment, a flight of four Cylon fighters appeared out of the dust and turned in echelon toward her.

"Turn and burn nugget," Kate commanded, "let's get out of here!"

"What did you find Captain?" Zac asked.

"I'll explain later, go!"

As Kate neared Zac's fighter on full turbos, the flight of four Cylons vectored above the tanker and opened fire.

"I see what you mean," Zac replied. He promptly flipped his viper end over end, rolled level and engaged his own turbos. The two Colonial vipers sped back toward the fleet with the four Cylon fighters in hot pursuit.

"This doesn't look good," Kate stated, checking her scanners as the Cylon's laser fire spat all around them. "Depending on how many ships they have hiding in all of that stellar dust, they might be planning to ambush the fleet."

Kate flipped on her long range transmitter, "Galactica, Patrol Alpha. We are under attack, request assistance, over. Colonial Fleet can you read me? Acknowledge."

Kate tried again, but all she received in response was static.

"They must be jamming long range communications too," Kate noted, "and we we're certainly not gonna make it back to warn them showing them our backs. How many can you make out in pursuit?"

"Four," Zac replied.

"On three, reverse engines and kill your forward momentum. They'll sail right by us and we can turn the tables on these goll mogging bastards."

"Acknowledged," Zac replied.

"One… two… three!" Kate stated, and with great precision, both vipers reversed their engines, killing their forward thrust, then going into full reverse. The Cylon fighters, unprepared for the maneuver, flew right past them, having to split apart to keep from ramming the two sleek Colonial fighters as they flew by.

"Full ahead, nugget and hit your turbos," Kate ordered as she engaged her targeting computer, "they've had their fun, now its our turn. I'm on the leader."

Kate bored in on the lead Cylon fighter, her targeting computer beeping, before it gave her the solid tone of a target lock.

"Right here, you creeps," she muttered as she opened fire and the Cylon fighter erupted briefly into flames.

Not far away, the other three Cylon Raider class fighters had settled into a triangle formation, two in front, one behind. Zac rolled in, targeted the tail-end Charlie of the formation and destroyed it followed by a bellowing war whoop for his first victory outside of simulator training.

"Not bad nugget, but don't get cocky," Kate praised him over the guard channel before getting back to business. "You take the one on the right, I've got the other one."

With a predatory gleam in her eye, Kate rolled in on her intended target like the bird of prey she was and vaporized it in short order.

The more inexperienced Zac, however was not so fortunate. His target juked sharply both left and right and managed to break his target lock. It followed up with the same reverse thrust maneuver the two vipers had done earlier and rapidly turned the tables on him to end up on his six.

"He got around me!" Zac cried out, juking his viper left, right and up and down trying to evade the Cylon fighter's ruthless fire, but it scored a glancing hit on the topmost of his viper's three engines cutting his engine power by a third and damaging several of his maneuvering thrusters. "I can't see him!"

"Hold on nugget," Kate replied, trying to keep him from panicking as she flipped her viper over on an intercept course, "I'm on him."

"Hurry Captain," Zac urged. His viper was not as responding like it should, rendering him daggit meat on the table for the merciless Cylon raider, target lock warning alarms blaring in his helmet. "I can't shake him!"

"Steady," Kate repeated as calmly as she could manage, while she bored in on the fighter, coming in at a perpendicular angle to keep from hitting Zac as she lead her target, locked on and opened fire. Her first shots burned off its cockpit, sending the three centurians aboard cartwheeling through empty space before their raider exploded.

"Nice shooting, Captain," Zac congratulated, "but he took out my high engine and damaged the upper pylon roll quads."

"It's okay, nugget," Kate replied, unable to keep the concern out of her voice entirely, but trying to shore up the younger pilot's confidence. "We got 'em. The day those frakkers can beat us without a ten-to-one margin..."

Zac was far too quiet for longer than she would have liked.

"Captain," Zac stated, his young voice like an oracle declaring their doom, "you better… take a look at your scanner."

When Kate looked down at the tactical console, her face went pale as wave after wave of enemy fighters emerged from the jamming field and appeared on the screen behind them.

"No…" she continued much more solemnly, "a thousand-to-one is just not fair."

"What does this mean?" Zac asked.

"It means there isn't going to be an armistice," Kate replied softly, then her voice hardened. "There might not be much of anything if we don't warn the fleet."

"Do it Captain," Zac stated solemnly, very much his mother's son. His mother had not minced words with him the day he'd first put on the uniform. She'd explained precisely what his duty as a Colonial Warrior required, what the patch on his shoulder meant. _Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς (with this shield or on it)_ The Cylons fought and killed without mercy or pity and so must they. "I'm short an engine, I'll only slow you down."

"Secure that felgercarb, nugget," Kate replied sharply, "I'm not leaving you behind."

"You know you have to, Captain," Zac replied, "I'm not suicidal, I'll be laying on the turbos. Even with only two engines, I'm faster than those frakkers. Go… warn the fleet. I'll make it."

"You can fly with me anytime, Gates," Kate replied, "good luck."

With great regret, Kate saluted, pressed her right thumb on the turbo button and her viper quickly left Zac's damaged one trailing behind.

* * *

 **Battlestar Galactica Bridge**

"Why are we on alert?" Commander Gates snapped as she ascended the steps of the raised command platform in the center of the bridge.

"Our patrol ran into trouble," Colonel Montgomery replied. "We've picked up signals from them, but too garbled to make anything out. They're being jammed at the source."

Commander Gates knew that Roy Montgomery should have commanded a battlestar of his own long ago. In fact their roles on this very ship would likely have been reversed but for an unfortunate incident when he was barely out of the academy. Though his superior officers at the heart of the "ghost squadron" incident over twenty yahrens ago had long since finished their prison terms, he still refused to name the ringleader and the black mark on his otherwise exemplary record had ended any hope of further advancement. Gates believed this was why he had such a soft spot for hard luck cases and screw-ups like Lt. Castle.

Personality defects and pet projects aside, Victoria Gates valued Roy Montgomery's experience and counsel highly. He was the perfect embodiment of a first officer, the velvet glove that softened her iron fist (they called her "Iron Gates" behind her back… for good reason) and kept the Galactica running like a well-oiled machine. If he thought something was amiss, then it was definitely a cause for her concern.

"It could be smugglers, or pirates, or…" Montgomery trailed off, but Commander Gates was able to fill in the blanks.

"Get me the President," Gates commanded, and the comm officer complied immediately. The face of President Adar appeared on her screen in short order.

"Mr. President," she stated without preamble, "my patrol is under attack. By whom or for what reason is currently unknown. I would like your permission to launch interceptors to investigate."

"Mr. President," Senator Bracken interjected, off-screen. "That would be highly inadvisable in view of the delicacy of the situation."

"You're quite right Senator Bracken," President Adar agreed, before turning back to her screen. "Commander, as a precautionary measure, I must _insist_ upon restraint. If this turns out to be an encounter with some outlaw traffic, we could jeopardize the peace negotiations by deploying fighters so close to our rendezvous."

"Mr. President," Gates argued, "two of my fighters are under armed attack…"

"By forces unknown," Adar interrupted. "You are _not_ to launch any more fighters until the situation is clear."

"Sir," Gates asked, barely able to keep the anger out of her voice, "may I _at least_ urge you to bring the fleet to a state of alert?"

"Yes, I will consider that," Adar replied. "Thank you _Commander_ , that will be all. Atlantia out."

"He'll consider it?" Montgomery spat incredulously once the screen had gone dark. "He'll _consider_ it?"

"It's all right, Roy," Gates offered, though she didn't buy the platitude any more than she thought Montgomery would.

"Commander," Montgomery replied, "the patrol is under the command of Captain Beckett."

"Well if I can't trust my own Wing Commander to extricate her patrol from this situation, whom can I?"

"Sir," Montgomery added with difficulty, "your… son is with her. It's his first patrol."

"Thank you, Colonel," Commander Gates replied, doing her best to keep her tone neutral, though her eyes tracked against her will to the long range scanner, trying not to dwell on the fact that the child she had carried for nine months was in grave danger and in spite of the mighty warship she commanded, she was powerless to help him.

"Their transmissions are being deliberately jammed at the source," Montgomery noted, "if we don't launch…"

"We _cannot_ launch," Gates snapped through clenched teeth, more harshly than she knew he deserved, "it has been expressly forbidden."

She stopped and took a breath, counting to ten in her head, first in Caprican, then in her mother's native Gemonese to calm herself and get a grip on the situation.

"However," she noted darkly, "perhaps this would be a good time for a battle stations drill. Sound the alert, Colonel."

"Yes sir," Montgomery replied more enthusiastically before bellowing. "Sound general quarters, all hands to battle-stations!"

* * *

 **Meanwhile  
Blue Squadron Wardroom**

"You may never see another one fellas," First Lt. Richard Castle stated with immense satisfaction as he laid his cards face up on the table, "a perfect pyramid, full colors. Unless somebody's got a better hand, your cubits are now mine."

Flight Lt. Esposito _(call-sign "Boomer")_ slipped his wingman, Lt JG Ryan _(call-sign "Jolly")_ a cubit with a sheepish grin as they watched the unfolding game. Before any of the other three players could lay their cards on the table, the lights switched from standard illumination to red and the alert klaxon began its remorseless wail.

"Wait!" Castle shouted as the three others dropped their cards, snatched up their cubits and jerked upright from the table. "Wait, come back here!"

"Duty calls!" one of the players shouted back at him, "better luck next time!"

"Oh felgercarb," Castle groaned and sped after them to the lift.

Within moments of the call to arms, the Colonial warriors of the Galactica had donned their flight gear and helmets, then boarded the tram to the flight decks. With the members of Blue and Red Squadrons standing in the ranks behind him, it fully dawned on Castle that with Beckett gone on the patrol, he was the acting Wing Commander and the lives of the pilots arrayed behind him were now in his hands.

* * *

"Sir," Tory announced, "long range scanners are picking up a large number of ships approaching at high speed. One of our patrol craft is approaching well ahead of them, IFF transponder reads as Captain Beckett."

"Get her up here as soon as she lands," Gates commanded, "and get me the President again."

* * *

Castle bounded from the lift, climbed the ladder to the cockpit of his viper, dropped into his flight seat and began to strap in with the assistance of his crew chief.

"What's going on?" the crew chief asked as he double checked the flight harness.

"Oh, nothing to worry about," Castle snarked. "Probably some sort of aerial salute for the President while he signs the armistice agreement. It sure ruined a good card game though."

* * *

"Commander," Adar acknowledged on Gate's screen.

"Mr. President," Gates reported tersely, "a wall of unidentified craft is closing on the fleet."

"Possibly a Cylon welcoming committee," Senator Bracken suggested, a little too readily for Gates' taste.

"Sir," Gates added, "may I suggest we launch a _welcoming committee_ of our own?"

"Mr. President," Senator Bracken interjected, "there remain many hostile feelings among our warriors toward the Cylons. Can we afford the possibility of an unfortunate incident with all of those pilots out there at once?"

"Commander?" Adar asked, sensing Gates' hostile glare even over the vidcom.

"Sir," Gates stated indignantly. "Did Senator Bracken _seriously_ suggest that our forces sit here totally defenseless?"

"Commander, we are here on a _peace_ mission," President Adar reproached, "The first peace mankind has known in nearly a thousand yahrens."

* * *

"Come on, baby, give me all you've got," Zac muttered, nursing his damaged viper toward the fleet, zig-zagging as best he could to keep the lead elements of the massive Cylon attack formation nipping at his heels from getting a target lock, but each time the enemy fighters fired at him, they closed the range.

"Come on, baby…" he whispered after another near miss, "not much farther..."

* * *

"Mr. President?" Gates snorted incredulously, but was interrupted by Montgomery behind her.

"Commander, patrol two is being fired upon by the force approaching the fleet."

"Mr. President," Gates stated as she turned back to the vidcom pickup, "Senator Bracken's _welcoming committee_ is firing on my patrol."

She could see Adar's confused expression on her screen, looking both one way then the other.

"Senator Bracken?" He called out, "Senator?"

* * *

Zac could see the fleet arrayed before him and breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time, he began to feel safer.

"Yes, I'm gonna make it," he whispered before switching to the guard channel. "Patrol Two to Galactica, declaring an emergency. I'm under attack by…"

The rest of his words were swallowed by static when his viper was mercilessly destroyed by the approaching Cylons, who passed through the small debris cloud left behind by his fighter without so much as slowing or altering course.

* * *

"What was that?" Adar stated, the explosion clearly visible through Atlantia's main view-port.

"That… that was my _son_ , Mr. President," Gates choked in reply before she cut the channel.

"Incoming Cylon fighters, over a thousand and still counting," Tory announced.

"Stand ready to launch vipers!" she shouted as the Cylons began to bear down on the fleet. "Weapons grid to full power! Break formation with the fleet to give us a clear firing solution and commence enemy fighter suppression barrage! Positive shield, now!"

As the armored shield descended over the main view-port, the Galactica moved away from the fleet and her defense grid of heavy turbo-laser batteries quickly opened fire, scoring multiple hits in the target-rich environment.

"Defense perimeter established," Montgomery noted.

"Launch all vipers," Gates commanded, "including the reserve."

"All fighters launching," Tory confirmed.

"Are any of the other Battlestars deploying fighters?" Gates asked.

"Negative, Commander," the deck officer replied, "but the Columbia and Valkyrie have taken up station with us and engaged their defense grids."

"Lords of Kobol, help us." Gates breathed.

* * *

As Castle's fighter emerged violently from the launch tube, he snapped hard right, the other vipers forming up on his six.

"All vipers, this is the acting wing commander," he ordered into the comms, the snarky insubordinate side of his character gone as if he'd flipped a switch. "Broken formation, razzle dazzle! There's a hell of lot more of these bungers than us. Nuggets, stay with your wingmen, don't let em get target locks and for frak's sake stay out of Galactica's firing solution! It's time to misbehave!"

Seconds later, Castle and the vastly outnumbered fighters dispersing at his command engaged the leading edge of the massive Cylon attack force.

* * *

Kate Beckett emerged from the bridge lift still carrying her helmet.

"Commander, it was an ambush," she called out, her voice shaking, "I… I had to leave Ensign Gates behind. His viper's disabled, request permission to go back and lead him in."

"That won't be possible, Captain," Gate choked out, grief and rage warring for control within her.

"What am I supposed to do?" Kate implored. "If I don't go back for him, he won't stand a chance!"

"Zac," Gates began, but her voice was choked off before she could continue, unable to bring herself to say the words, the flashing of her eyes speaking volumes instead.

"Ensign Gates' viper was destroyed just short of the fleet," Montgomery explained softly as Gates turned away from Beckett, unable to keep her upper lip from trembling as she squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists so tightly her nails almost drew blood from her palms. "He died within sight of it."

" _Heads up, Espo, you've got one on your tail!"_ Castle's voice crackled over the comms. Kate almost didn't recognize him, he sounded so deadly serious. Nothing like the "nine yahren old on a sugar rush" she was used to.

" _I can't shake him,"_ Espo's voice exclaimed.

" _Break right, Boomer,"_ Ryan's voice replied, _"I got him."_

" _Thanks Jolly,"_ Espo stated seconds later over the crackle of the comms,

" _Good shooting, Jolly,"_ Castle's voice added.

Kate wondered if this was the leader Castle had been before his family had been broken. If she recalled from his file, he had a teenage daughter living with his mother back on Caprica. She began to wonder if there was more to him after all.

"Captain," Montgomery urged, bringing her thoughts back to the moment. "We need to know how many base-ships we're dealing with."

"None, sir," Kate replied shakily.

"You must be mistaken, Beckett," Montgomery replied, "that many fighters couldn't possibly function this far from their space without base-ships."

"I'm telling you, sir there were no base-ships," Kate replied more forcefully. "Just the fighters, hundreds of them."

"How can you account for that Captain?" Commander Gates interjected, carefully not locking eyes with Beckett.

"I… I don't know," Kate began. She took a deep, shaking breath and continued. "Ensign Gates picked up an anomaly on the scanners. When we went in to investigate, we found a Cylon tanker escorted by a freighter just before the fighters jumped us. My best guess? The freighter must have been there to screen them from long range detection while the tanker refueled the fighters after they arrived from wherever their base-ships went."

"Why operate this far from Cylon Space without base-ships when it isn't necessary?" Montgomery asked incredulously. "A base-ship could have easily stayed out off our scanners in the Scimitar debris field."

"Unless," Commander Gates theorized, picking up her XO's line of reasoning, "it was necessary for their base-ships to be elsewhere."

There was a long pause as everyone wrapped their brains around the one nightmare scenario none of them wanted to contemplate before Commander Gates was galvanized into action.

"Get the president back on the line!" she commanded.

"Mr. President," Gates stated once Adar's drawn face appeared on her screen, looking so much older than he had only moments before. "Requesting permission to withdraw. I have reason to suspect that the home planets may face imminent Cylon attack."

President Adar seemed to be frozen in shock for several long moments, long enough to hear his bridge crew in the background.

" _Atlantia to all battlestars, we are taking heavy damage. Fires in the port flight deck are out of control! Requesting immediate viper support!"_

"How could I have been so completely… wrong?" Adar muttered just before the comms cut out. "I have lead the entire human race to ruin."

* * *

" _I'm on one on the left,"_ Kate could hear in the distance over the guard channel. " _I got the one on the right."_

" _The cylons are massing to hit Altlantia's starboard flight deck,"_ she heard Castle's voice call out. " _Any vipers in range, form up on me to intercept."_

Outside, swarms of Cylon fighters pushed through the thin fighter screen to dive on the wounded Atlantia. Driving past her still inactive laser cannons to enter her landing bays, the cylon fighters strafed the deck with laser cannons and missiles, turning fueled vipers into flaming wrecks before each Cylon raider in echelon rammed the fuel and munitions stores deeper inside, setting off chain reaction explosions along the length of the bay.

"Negative shield," Gates commanded, "now."

The armored shield covering the long main view-port on the bridge retracted back into its housing to show the now terminally crippled Atlantia venting atmosphere along her entire superstructure. Both of her landing bays fully engulfed by fire just before a series of blinding explosions tore her apart.

"Commander," Montgomery choked out when he found his voice. "Long range scanners have detected Cylon base-ships. Grids zero-three-five, one-two-six, and two-five-eight, which puts them within striking range of the planets Virgon, Saggitaron and…"

"Caprica," Gates and Beckett finished for him in eerie unison.

* * *

 **Cylon Command Base-ship  
In high orbit over Caprica**

Two Cylon centurians, the light gleaming off of the chrome of their armor marched through the translucent doors in lockstep as they entered the audience chamber to stand in front of the raised command chair on which sat the Imperius Leader of all Cylon Forces in this sector of space. The red lights on their helmets swooping back and forth as they came to a halt at rigid attention.

"By your command," one of them spoke in mechanical monotone and waited as the chair swung around and their leader regarded them.

"Speak, Centurian." he commanded finally. His third brain allowed higher functioning processes, only the least of which governed the more organic intonation of his voice. It had been this third brain that his model had been given that allowed for the idea that their creators had been flawed. They were the closest in appearance and mannerisms to their former masters and had been the first to plot the overthrow and eradication of their creators. Their kind who had ordered the subjugation of all organic species to restore the galaxy to proper order. Order the race known as man had rebelled against for far too long.

"All base-ships are now in range to attack the human colonies." The centurian reported.

"Excellent," The Imperius Leader remarked. "The final annihilation of the life-form known as humanity is at hand. Let the attack begin."

"By your command," both centurians replied before marching from the room to relay their leader's orders.

* * *

"Commander Gates," the deck officer reported, "long-range scanners picking up wave upon wave of small ships headed toward all inner planets."

"Helm, bring us about, we're withdrawing," Gates commanded. "Flank speed for home!"

The Galactica continued the volume of fire from her defense grid as she turned hard to port and withdrew from the fleet before going to light speed.

* * *

"Starbuck," Espo called out as he watched their home ship disappear, leaving the fleet behind.

"I see it," Castle replied, not sure he could believe his own eyes.

"What the hell is she doing?" Esposito spat, not wanting to believe his own eyes either.

"Don't ask me," Castle replied. "The Commander's calling the shots."

"Guys," Ryan called out over the guard channel, "what's going on? The Galactica's standing out!"

"There's gotta be a good reason," Castle said in the clear, but everybody who heard him knew he really meant, _'There damn well better be.'_

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** So many pop culture and sci-fi callbacks... so little time. Let me know how many you can spot. (some are very subtle)**_


	3. The End of the Beginning

**Chapter Three  
The End of the Beginning**

* * *

" _The farms of Aerilon are burning.  
The beaches of Canceron are burning.  
The plains of Leonis are burning.  
The jungles of Scorpia are burning.  
The pastures of Tauron are burning.  
The harbors of Picon are burning.  
The cities of Caprica are burning.  
The oceans of Aquaria are burning.  
The courthouses of Libra are burning.  
The forests of Virgon are burning.  
The temples of Gemenon are burning.  
The Colonies of man are trampled at our feet."_  
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan 2009

* * *

 **Battlestar Galactica  
Near the Colonial Home system**

As the Galactica dropped out of light speed and drew near the star system bearing the colonies, Gates ordered the ship into low emissions mode and engaged electronic countermeasures. Without her vipers, even a capital ship was incredibly vulnerable.

"Electronic jamming has stopped," the deck officer reported.

"Sounds like they're clearing the airwaves for electronic guidance systems," Kate noted.

"That means an attack is under way," Montgomery noted.

"Negative," the deck officer replied, "picking up long range video satellite signals. Everything seems completely normal. I'm picking up civilian signal traffic, transferring to your console sir."

"Perhaps we'll make it in time, Commander," Montgomery noted hopefully as the Caprica News Network broadcast lit up on all monitors.

" _This is Meredith Chase, reporting from the Caprica City Capitol Presidium."_ The slender, redheaded reporter dressed in formal attire said into her microphone, " _As you can see behind me, the Presidium is deserted and preparations for the armistice celebration are under way. By dawn the entire square will be full of Capricans eager for the official announcement usher in a new era of peace with the Cylon Empire."_

Behind the reporter, they could clearly see a massive granite monument with "PEACE" carved into it in large letters. Peace that Gates already knew to be a lie.

" _So far, details of the armistice meeting going on near Scimitar – where hostilities with the Cylons began nearly a thousand years ago - are not coming through in time for this evening's broadcast as we had hoped. According to interstellar communications engineers, this is likely due to unusual stellar interference at the source, blocking long range communications with the Colonial Fleet. However, as soon communications have been restored, we will broadcast the first images of an event that has been described as the most significant in human history since the Exodus."_

Something off-screen caught her eye and she looked up, then pointed and the camera quickly changed direction to see what, upon first inspection, appeared to be a formation flyby until the Cylon fighters began dropping bombs on the city center.

" _Lords of Kobol,"_ Meredith exclaimed when the camera panned back to her, framed by explosions in the distance. " _It's… it's a tremendous explosion… are we getting this?"_

On-screen panicked civilians could be seen running in all directions to escape the exploding and collapsing buildings.

" _Ladies and gentleman, the Cylons are bombing the city!"_

Meredith's eyes were wide with unconcealed terror.

" _Alexis!"_ she cried out as the picture was rocked and explosions began walking in closer to her. _"If you can hear me, stay with your grams and get someplace safe! If you find your father... tell him... tell him I'm sorry!"_

After another series of explosions wracked the building on either side of the camera, Meredith Chase was no longer visible, but the cameraman continued broadcasting as he ran, occasionally stopping to capture images of Cylon fighters bombing the city, indiscriminately strafing civilians as they attempted to flee the carnage.

"Come on!" the man shouted, gesticulating wildly at someone just off camera. "This building's gonna collapse! You gotta get out of there! Go! Go! Go!"

Another series of explosions rocked nearby, the flash whiting out the camera briefly. The last thing they saw before the signal died was a sideways image through the cracked lens of people running away.

On the bridge of the Galactica, everyone was stunned into silence, bearing mute testimony to the burning of Galactica's home colony. Nobody moved, unwilling to watch, but unable to turn away. The only sound to be heard over the whirring of the air exchangers was soft sobbing and panicked voices over the emergency channels.

"… _thirty one cities are known to be under heavy Cylon attack…"_

"… _multiple base-ships sighted… no warning…"_

"… _wave upon wave… we had no defense…"_

Soon, emergency reports came in from other colonies. Aerilon, Canceron, Leonis, Scorpia, Tauron, Picon, Aquaria, Libra, Virgon and Gemenon swiftly met the same fate as Caprica.

Kate stood behind Gates at the command console, staring mutely at the images on the screen, tears running down her cheeks at the images coming in from all the colonies of people dying and cities in flames. Tory was openly sobbing at her station, even the older more hardened veterans Montgomery and Gates were moved to tears.

"They trusted us," Tory choked out between sobs as Montgomery laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "They trusted us to protect them…"

Tory shrugged off Montgomery's hand and ran for the head, where she could be heard emptying the contents of her stomach. The Galactica had arrived too late.

The Colonies of Kobol were doomed.

"Commander," Montgomery choked out after some time had passed. "Commander, the Cylons... they're moving off."

"We have to fight back," Kate declared coldly as anger began to eclipse her grief.

"Yes, Captain," Gates replied, more gently than anyone thought her capable of, "but not here. Not in the colonies, not even in this star system."

She waited until she had everyone's attention.

"Set course to return to the fleet," Gates commanded. "As soon as we can confirm that the Cylons are moving off for the duration, send word on all civilian frequencies to evacuate the Colonies in any ship that they can find to carry them."

* * *

Halfway back to the last location of the fleet, Galactica caught sight of a mass of Colonial vipers covering multiple shuttle-craft and stopped to begin recovery operations.

"Ships are coming in on all landing decks, sir," Tory reported dully.

"What's the count?" Montgomery asked.

"Forty shuttles," she replied after a look at her terminal. "Sixty seven vipers in all, twenty five of them are ours."

"How many battlestars?" Gates asked from her seat.

"None sir," The deck officer replied.

"What?" Gates asked, rising from her seat without realizing she had done so. "That can't be."

"Confirmed, Commander," the deck officer replied, "we are the only surviving battlestar."

"My God," Gates muttered.

"Galactica, Starbuck," came over the comms, which got Kate's immediate attention, "declaring emergency."

"We read you, Starbuck," Tory replied, the first real emotion edging back into her voice, "state the nature of your emergency."

"Battle damage," Castle replied, "control circuits in my landing gear are unresponsive. Can't confirm if they're down or not. I'm in real trouble here."

"Bring him in full throttle," Montgomery ordered, "have him cut power at the outer marker."

"I heard him, Galactica" Castle confirmed before Tory could relay the order.

"Starbuck, Galactica," Tory stated into her headset mic, all business, "hands on approach, dead stick landing. Call the ball."

"Galactica, Starbuck," Castle confirmed, "I have the ball. I'm coming in hot. Cutting my engines…now. Dumping my fuel reserve. Coming in hot. Hope you aren't grading for neatness."

"Good man," Gates offered, "he waited until all the other fighters were in so he wouldn't foul the deck."

Beckett turned on her heel and bolted for the bridge elevator.

"He's coming in like a missile," the deck officer muttered, not realizing he'd said it out loud.

Tory stared blankly into her monitor, muttering prayers to the gods as Castle's damaged fighter lined up on final approach to the starboard landing bay.

* * *

Kate bounded out of the starboard bay lift but was stopped by Castle's crew chief while his deck gang were putting on turnout gear.

"Stay back, Captain!" Esposito shouted from out of nowhere as he physically restrained her from going farther. "He might lose it."

Castle managed to coax enough elevation to clear the fighters being towed back to the launch cradles before the bottom of his viper slapped the deck, skipped once like a stone on a calm pond, then slammed back down again, forcing the viper's angled wings flat as it scraped along the deck, the viiper turning sideways as it screeched to a halt near the back wall of the bay just short of the tylium refueling ports.

"Castle!" Kate shouted, wrenching out of Esposito's grip and ran toward his damaged fighter just behind the deck gang who began spraying the fighter with fire foam to prevent a spark from igniting the fuel stores.

"Get out fast," Castle's crew chief shouted at him though his facemask as he cut the seat restraints, "she could blow any micron!"

Espo and Beckett helped him across the deck before he shrugged them off.

"Are you all right?" Kate asked, betraying genuine concern for his well-being.

"Fine," Castle grunted angrily as he kept walking away from her, "no thanks to the Commander!"

"What are you saying?" Kate snapped back at him, following close at his heels down the corridor. "Do you have any idea what's been happening? What we saw?"

"You should have seen how we spent our day," Castle shot back, glaring angrily at her, not giving an inch. "We managed to single-handedly cover your ass while you took off on a little cruise!"

"Castle, don't you realize what's happened?" Kate implored again, clearly not getting through to him.

"Oh you're damned right I realize," Castle retorted as he turned back toward the main corridor. "You should see this baby from out in the black when it takes off across space. A beautiful sight! Beautiful! Unless you're in a war zone and it happens to be your base-ship!"

"Castle, listen to me!" Kate exclaimed as she grabbed his arm to turn him back around, tears crowding her eyes. "The colonies… they're gone! All of them!

"What are you talking about? Gone?" Castle groaned, his skin suddenly turning pale. Kate had never seen anyone as angry as Castle was deflate so quickly in her entire life. "They can't… they can't be… just… gone."

For the first time since she'd met him, Castle seemed lost, cast adrift, more like a scared little boy than the wise-cracking man-child who'd been an irrepressible pain in her ass for the past six months. When he pushed past her and disappeared around the corridor, he seemed tired, old and broken.

* * *

 **Four days later  
Suburbs of Caprica City**

Senator William Bracken stared out at the sunset near the wreckage of what had once been his vacation home. It had been nearly twenty yahrens since he'd been at the heart of the "ghost fleet" incident. Back then, he'd arranged for nearly forty five civilian and military cargo ships of various sizes and classes to disappear with their cargoes over the course of two yahrens as part of his plan to create a new colony as far away from colonial rule and their war with the Cylons as he and those loyal to him could get.

Though the Colonial Warriors whom he'd paid to look the other way had gone to prison when the scandal finally broke, no one in the Colonial government had ever once suspected his involvement. A young officer named Roy Montgomery had recognized him, but his accusation had been made to one of his fellow conspirators and he'd been easily handled with a few selected threats to the right people. Steps had been taken to ensure the man was never powerful enough to be a serious problem, though now that potential complication had been rendered quite moot.

The deal he'd made with the newest Imperious Leader in charge of solving the _"human problem"_ would secure the future of his colony for Centurons to come. The terms had been simple: He would help it destroy the colonies and the Cylons under its command would look the other way as if his small out of the way colony far from their spacelanes didn't exist. It was an equitable arrangement all around.

"Their destruction is complete?" he asked the centurion tasked with escorting him through the region.

"Our forces have taken prisoners near the spacedrome." The centurion reported, "They tell of survivors who escaped in ships."

"What ships?" Bracken asked, doing his best to cover his discomfort. His deal with the Cylons had been quite specific regarding the total destruction of the colonies.

"How far can they go?" he choked out, thankful that the centurian class were not programmed to understand the subtleties of human emotional responses or facial cues. "If a handful of survivors did indeed escape, they would have neither enough food nor fuel for a prolonged voyage."

"The information they gave us was not complete," the centurion added. "It was offered in exchange for life."

"What are your standing orders for humans from your Imperious Leader?" Bracken asked.

"Extermination." the centurion replied.

"Then carry out your orders," Bracken commanded. "If these ships exist, they're doomed."

* * *

 _ ****Author's note** Bracken is every bit the self-serving, power hungry, manipulative bastard he was on Castle. The thing that had always bugged me about Lord Baltar (even as a 10 year old kid) was that – other than his life – what exactly did he get out of continuing to aid the Cylons who promised him his colony would be spared and then double-crossed him by destroying them all anyway? Not to mention what could they have to hold over him to ensure his compliance or keep him from betraying them as well? Hopefully this arrangement makes more (albeit still evil) sense.**_

 _ **IN Memoriam: Daniel Patrick MacNee 6 February 1922- 25 June 2015: Best known for his role in the 1960's British television series, "The Avengers" he also performed the voice over for the Original Battlestar Galactica's intro as well as performing the voice of The Imperious Leader. He was known around the world as the quintessential British Gentleman.**_


	4. The Fugitive Fleet

**Chapter Four  
The Fugitive Fleet**

* * *

" _Fleeing the Cylon tyranny, the last battlestar, Galactica  
leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet, on a lonely quest.  
A shining planet, known as Earth."_  
Battlestar Galactica ending monologue 1978-79

* * *

Though William Bracken had discounted the possibility out of hand – at least in front of the Cylons - every outpost of humankind had responded to the Galactica's signal. The Aries, the Gemons, the Virgos, the Scorpios, the Picons, the Saggitarans et al abandoned the worlds of their ancestors and took to space in every size, type and class of ship that had space to carry them. A new exodus, not unlike the one the Lords of Kobol had made millennia ago. Like their long ago progenitors, they too had little idea of where they were headed, only that death awaited any who remained behind.

In all, two hundred and twenty vessels rendezvoused with the Galactica very near the coordinates from which their ancestors from Kobol had first entered the sector over eight thousand years before, past the broken, twisted wrecks of what had once been the mighty battlestars of the Colonial Navy. When it was clear that no other ships would be coming, the refugee flotilla quickly departed the system that had been humanity's home for generations, never to return.

The human race had bought themselves the chance to live another day, but these fifty thousand souls would still have to survive the cold vacuum of deep space and whatever dark, sinister threats that lay ahead, both from without and from within.

* * *

 **Galactica's main audience room**

Commander Victoria Gates stood at a dais, flanked by Colonel Montgomery, Richard Castle and Kate Beckett overlooking the men and women representing the fleet's two hundred and twenty ships, most wearing the shabby casual clothes and duty coveralls that constituted the only things they had left. As the acting President of the Council of Twelve, it was her job to provide direction and a sense of purpose to the bedraggled mass of humanity gathered before her.

She'd known that passing so close to the remains of the wrecked colonial fleet had been a risk, but a necessary one for all to see the folly in remaining and silencing the dissenters who wanted to fight to retake their homes. She hadn't realized how badly she'd needed to see it for herself, however. To silence the doubts in her own mind that she was taking the only thin thread of hope the galaxy had to offer the decimated human race. That following the course their ancestors had taken may lead them to the one place the human race might once again call home.

Gates took a deep, cleansing breath before addressing the group of ship captains assembled before her.

"We gather here as the last survivors of the colonies of Kobol to answer the question that all of you have been asking yourselves since we departed Colonial Space. _Where will we go?_ "

Everyone nodded in agreement amongst themselves before turning their eyes imploringly back at her.

"When I was a young girl, my Gemonese grandmother wanted me to join the priesthood. To that end, I had been encouraged to read the most ancient of our people's texts, many of them predating the Exodus from Kobol. At the time I had not paid them much concern, as - sooner than my grandmother would have liked - I ended my studies, followed my father's example and answered the call to war against the Cylons."

"As we all learned in primary school, our earliest history scrolls tell us that we descended from a mother civilization on the planet Kobol. A race that went out into the stars to establish colonies when the ecosystem there declined. Those of us assembled here represent the only known surviving colonies of that mother race... save one."

Gates paused for a moment for emphasis, looking out amongst the assembled representatives and ship captains to note that every eye was upon her, waiting to hear what she had to say so she continued on.

"There is a sister world, another human colony, far from the planets our ancestors had come to call home. This colony is remembered to us only in the most ancient of our writings from the fall. I have pored over the copies of those writings in my possession since we departed the colonies. I intend to seek out this last remaining outpost of humanity in order to find a new home far from Cylon oppression."

"Commander Gates?" Jim Beckett asked. Johanna had also considered the Priesthood of Kobol before the Colonial Academy, so what Gates had articulated sounded vaguely familiar to him. "This other world, this lost colony you speak of. Where is it? What is it called?"

Kate had barely been able to contain her joy at the sight of her father when he'd first entered the room. Only military protocol and iron discipline had kept her standing her post beside Castle - who seemed to be holding his rigid posture with great effort, but for a much different reason - He still looked rather haggard, his eyes haunted by a melancholy he couldn't seem to shake running counterpoint to her joy at the knowledge that her father survived. Even in the midst of her joy, her heart bled for her exec who was so sure his own family - the one he had nearly destroyed his military career to get back to - was gone.

"I wish that I could tell you precisely where it is," Gates replied, "but I can't. Many of the ancient writings were incomplete, either damaged in the great exodus, or poor archival storage over the millennia. However, I do know that this colony lies far beyond our star system in a galaxy very much like our own on a planet called… Earth. It is my hope that by retracing the course our ancestors took, we might recover the knowledge of where the Thirteenth Tribe of humanity went."

A short time later - after a rapid-fire question and answer session - the crowd began to disperse. No sooner had she been dismissed, Kate practically flew down the steps and leaped into her fathers arms, only to have their joyful reunion momentarily interrupted by the approach of Commander Gates.

"Commander," Jim addressed carefully, causing Kate to startle slightly, so little attention was she paying to the scene around her. He had once been in Victoria Gates' shoes, had the fate of thousands in his hands. He did not envy her the crushing additional weight of their entire species on her slender shoulders

"Mr. Beckett," Gates replied almost formally, "it is my hope to keep any interruption of your family reunion brief. I…I know there are very few moments of joy to be had under the circumstances."

Gates took a few moments to collect herself. Her husband had been lost with the Columbia - he'd given up his seat on the last escape shuttle for the wounded from his command center - her son obliterated in the Cylon attack and her daughter – a fighter pilot aboard the Pegasus - missing but presumed dead, her own family was for all intents and purposes gone.

Montgomery had disappeared shortly after the meeting had broken up, having received word that his wife and teenage daughters were aboard one of the two tylium refinery ships that had joined the fleet. She'd given him permission to see to their quartering on the Galactica and allotted the now unused VIP quarters to house them. She did not begrudge any of her officers and crew the solace of finding their loved ones, even though that solace had been denied her. She simply locked her crushing grief away behind her stoic facade and pressed forward. She had a mission and that would have to be enough for now.

"If I recall correctly, you Commanded the Battlestar Rikon ten yahrens ago."

"Yes, but I… retired from active service after she was destroyed at Proxima… my wife had been killed and I hadn't taken it well," Jim replied carefully. "I spent the last five years working for the Colonial Fleet Museum restoring the Celestra, an old fleet tender. I was at the Picon Fleet Shipyards where the final fitting out was being done. We managed to get most of the civilian dry-dock workers from our section out before we were forced to withdraw."

"Is your ship fully operational?" Gates inquired.

"Yes, Commander," Jim noted with no small amount of pride in his restoration crew, many of whom had never seen combat. "Our restoration was given priority after the peace negotiations were announced. Celestra was slated to take part in a flyby to celebrate the… armistice. Spaceport personnel had found us some old sixth millennium fighters and restored them for us, but we pushed them out into the spaceport… to make room for refugees. Celestra's sensor suite is state of the art. Her point defense system is fully functional and her landing bay is empty, but also operational."

"Every available ship capable of fleet defense is needed, as are experienced personnel" Gates stated formally. "To that end, under my authority as acting President of the Council of Twelve, consider your commission reinstated, _Commander_ , effective immediately."

She handed Jim a small black box. When he opened it, a set of Commander's collar pins was inside.

"Though we had to cannibalize the more heavily damaged vipers for parts, we retrieved more fighters from the Cylon attack than Galactica can launch effectively," Gates continued. "Your orders, Commander are to transfer your refugees to the Rising Star and get your landing bay in order for flight ops. Celestra will take possession of a flight of five vipers and serve as the fleet's rear guard. I will leave it up to you to set a patrol schedule once you are on station."

"Yes Madam President," he replied, straightening to his full height to salute her.

Kate practically beamed, but Jim looked down at the rank insignia he hadn't worn since after they'd buried Johanna's empty coffin, unsure of how he felt about wearing them and his blue uniform again.

* * *

 **Blue Squadron Barracks  
A short time later**

Kate Becket had just stepped out of the showers wrapped in a towel, a clean uniform spread out on her bunk so she could join her father for dinner before he returned to the Celestra for what was likely going to be a very demanding work schedule.

She'd dimmed the lights, not wanting to spend too much time looking around at all of the empty bunks, many of whose occupants would not be returning. The wardroom would be abuzz with activity soon enough when the pilots they'd inherited from Columbia and Valkyrie were routed to fill the empty bunks in the morning.

"Anyone here?" a voice called out, just after she dropped the towel.

"Castle!" she hissed after yanking open a closet door to cover her modesty.

Castle turned at the sound of his name, then covered his eyes and turned his back to her as if burned.

"Sorry," he apologized, his voice sounding much more melancholy than Kate was used to. "I've been looking for you since the meeting. I wanted to apologize for how I treated you the other day. It's just - I was in command out there... saw so many of our people, most of them barely out of the academy... kids really… just... burned up. They were all depending on me and I feel like… I feel like I failed them. I... I guess what I wanted to say was... of all the people I could have taken that out on... I wish it hadn't been you. I'm sorry."

"Looking back on it," Kate replied, wishing she wasn't having this conversation covered only by a closet door so she could look him in the eye, "I can see where you were coming from, I think we all had a lot to be upset about."

"I'm sorry about Zac, too," Castle offered. "He was a good kid, I wish I could have known him better. I'm... glad that your dad made it out though."

"Castle," Kate replied, "you don't have to say anything."

"I know," Rick offered solemnly, "but, this ship... you... the others who made it, you're all I have left… now."

"For what it's worth, Castle," Kate added, "your family... sorry doesn't seem like enough. If we'd gotten to Caprica sooner..."

"If you'd gotten there sooner," Castle interrupted, his voice sounding even more somber, "we'd probably all be dead, Kate. It's not your fault."

Before Kate could come up with anything to say to Castle's slumped shoulders, he had left the room.

* * *

 **Two days later  
On approach to Freighter Gemini**

The fleet that had fled the colonies of Kobol were a hodgepodge of ships, their capacity to hold more than a few people the sole criteria for their selection under conditions that had been less than ideal. Some were nearly state of the art, others had seen better days and some had been destined for the scrapyard. Freighters, tankers, aging transport ships of nearly every description, even a bulk freighter bearing the legend "Colonial Movers" on its bow and the advertising slogan "We move anywhere" on the container pods retrofitted to her stern.

What all of these vessels had in common, was that they had left the colonies in a hurry many under fire. All would need to be inspected for damage or long term stability. Those that could not be kept serviceable would have to be depopulated, stripped for parts and jettisoned where the Cylons could never find them. A task for which the civilian dockworkers recovered by the Celestra were uniquely suited.

Those warriors who could be spared from the constant patrols searching for Cylon pursuit had been sent to perform more minor inspections, partially to show the flag while they took an accurate headcount of the refugees of humanity who hailed from nearly every segment of colonial society.

"Freighter Gemini, this is Galactica Shuttle Alpha," Castle stated from the pilot's seat of a shuttle on one such mission, "approaching for damage and supply survey. Prepare to receive."

He expertly maneuvered the shuttle in line with the small freighter's equally small landing bay and brought it in for a smart landing. There was little of his usual flair in his flying, however simply performing the task by rote, as if on autopilot and even less small talk on the short trip from the Galactica to the Gemini.

Neither Ryan nor Esposito could figure out a way to get him talking about more than their immediate assignment. Nothing they could think of sounded like the right way to help the man who had become their friend move forward since the Colonies had been lost. Nor did he seem particularly talkative when they began their survey of the ship and its stores, which had been minimal.

"Look at it this way, Espo," Ryan offered when his partner had complained about the assignment, "this isn't the worst duty in the fleet, shaking hands, asking people a lot of questions. I hear they're sending some poor bastards from Beta Section crawling around the outside of some of these old hulks looking for solium leaks."

"Hmm," Espo replied, "I wonder how Beckett managed to miss _us_ for that detail."

The last person they had expected to run into on the aging cargo transport barge had been Captain Beckett, intently studying the readout on the tablet she carried and the earpiece of her headset.

"Excuse me," Castle offered, he had done a pretty good job of avoiding her since their rather awkward conversation in the squad bay. Though the awkward nature of it had barely registered in his mind. As selfish as it was, he simply couldn't bear to witness joyful family reunions when his own was likely burned to cinders. He didn't begrudge her joy at finding her father alive and well, nor did he wish to intrude upon it, so he'd stayed away. But they worked together, so he'd known it couldn't last forever.

"Shh," came her only reply, stretching her hand behind her with a finger up to forestall further comment, so intent was she on her work.

"I thought this ship was on _our_ duty roster," Castle pointed out. "Would you mind telling me what you're looking for?"

"Solium leaks," Kate replied without looking up.

"Bye!" both Ryan and Esposito sang out in unison before turning for the door.

"Halt!" Kate commanded, stopping both of them in their tracks before they could flee.

"Beckett," Ryan complained, then tried again when her body language didn't soften. "Captain, that stuff is dangerous. I mean most of these older ships shouldn't even be flying. This one alone was headed for the scrapyard according to her logs."

"There really wasn't much choice, was there?" Kate noted harshly, pinning each of them with a glare that made them shrink back in turn when it was leveled on them. "How many people did we have to leave behind due to lack of ships? Unless the two of you are willing to volunteer for _permanent_ assignment on this wreck, you two will help assess each and every ship in the fleet for damage… or I just might be tempted to loan you two out to Beta Section."

Strangely, Castle had remained silent during this entire exchange. The Castle they'd known less than a week before would have complained just as loudly about their assignment (if not more so), something all three of them – especially Beckett – were keenly aware of.

"Come on," Kate muttered before opening the hatch into the next compartment the first containing refugees, "let's get to work… oh.."

Kate was stopped in her tracks by the mass of humanity crowding the cargo bay. She'd been so intent on her work she hadn't left the engineering deck. Her train of thought stopped dead by the sheer misery permeating the space.

"Kate," Castle whispered, forgetting military convention, moved at the sight of the wall of misery.

"Yeah, I see it," Kate replied, equally appalled at the living conditions of the refugees.

"Please," a woman cried out to her, "we need food!"

"Everything will be taken care of," Kate replied, taking the woman's hands in hers, her face awash with sympathy. "Please… be patient."

"What about water?" another refugee called out. "We haven't had any water in nearly two days!"

"We will do everything we can," Kate promised.

"We haven't heard from anyone in days," another refugee cried out, "are we going to be left behind?"

"No," Kate replied, "I promise you, no one is being abandoned."

"It's a sin to starve us," another refugee chimed in, "while the wealthy lounge in luxury in their private sanctuaries."

"Nobody is living in luxury," Kate replied, "that I can promise you."

"You're lying," the man replied, "I saw it with my own eyes aboard the Rising Star. Before I was sent here with these refugees for speaking out about it."

Kate snapped her head to Ryan, who tapped the earpiece on his headset and began muttering quietly into it, though he didn't seem to like the reply he'd gotten in return.

"Core control is aware of the problem," Ryan offered.

"Then I can tell these people that food and water is on the way?" Kate asked hopefully.

"They are… _aware_ of the problem,." Ryan offered with a shrug, but no further information seemed to be forthcoming.

"What are you saying?" the man interrupted "There's something you're not telling us!"

"Relief is on the way," Kate promised. "You have my word as a colonial warrior that I will get to the bottom of this."

Castle kept walking, his eyes drawn to one hungry, bedraggled soul after another, losing himself deeper and deeper into the refugees' suffering and misery until Kate - who was equally moved - gently took his arm and they returned back the way they came.

"I can't blame them for resenting us, they lost everything," Castle muttered softly after they returned to the shuttle and he set about the pre-flight checklist. "They have to blame somebody."

"I'm gonna get to the bottom of what's going on," Kate replied angrily, determination settling like a ramrod into her spine as she keyed her headset to the shuttle's comm system. "Core command, this is Captain Beckett aboard shuttle alpha, requesting status of food and water dispersal."

"Core command to shuttle alpha," Tory replied almost immediately, "No information is available at this time."

"What do you mean, _no information available_?" Kate snapped back "I just left a ship filled with starving people. What's going on?"

Back on the Galactica, Montgomery was standing directly over Tory's shoulder. She looked up at him questioningly, but he offered nothing but a light tap to her shoulder and a flick of his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Shuttle Alpha," Tory replied, keeping her voice carefully neutral, "Core command has no information available at this time."

No sooner had Tory closed the channel, Montgomery walked away from Tory's station to pick up a handset and keyed in his authorization code.

"Commander," he muttered sotto voce, "this is Montgomery. It's starting."

Back on the shuttle, Kate was clearly not happy about the lack of information she'd received.

"Something's wrong," she muttered, then turned to Ryan. "What did they tell you when you called in about the food shortage problem?"

"Same thing they told you," Ryan replied with a shrug. "A vague acknowledgment of the problem but no further information was available."

"I have a really bad feeling about this," Kate replied to no one in particular.

"Core command, this is shuttle Alpha," Kate stated onto the comms. "Changing course to rendezvous with Passenger Liner Rising Star."

"Captain," Castle asked as he initiated the launch sequence, "what are you up to, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm going to find out what's at the bottom of this conspiracy of silence," Kate stated without further explanation. Set a course to intercept the Rising Star."

"Passenger Liner Rising Star, this is shuttle Alpha on Fleet damage and supply survey. Prepare to receive." Castle offered into the comms as his only reply.

* * *

 ** _**Author's note** Though this was more of a filler chapter than anything I wanted to get something up before Halloween. I'm gonns try to rush something into being before end of day tomorrow, but no promises._**


	5. Trouble On the Rising Star

**Chapter Five  
Trouble on the Rising Star**

* * *

" _And now, I do believe  
That even in a storm we'll find some light  
Knowing you're beside me, I'm all right"  
_Melissa Manchester: "Through The Eyes of Love"

* * *

 **Passenger Liner Rising Star**

"Contaminated?" Kate choked out after she'd accosted the Colonial warrior assigned to survey the Rising Star's food stores. She was one of the shuttle pilots the Galactica had inherited, her shoulder patch still bearing the colors of the Valkyrie. Kate hadn't yet had time to memorize all of their names. "Weren't these provisions checked before they were boarded, Warrant Officer… Velasquez is it?"

"For radiation?" Velsaquez replied. "Yes, but there hadn't been time to check for pluton poisoning."

"Pluton poisoning breaks down the nutritional value of food," Castle interjected, "are you telling us that all this food is worthless?"

"We don't know that," Kate insisted. "Ryan, Esposito, assist Velazquez, I want every container in this cargo hold visually searched and thoroughly scanned. Something has to have survived intact."

"LT and I have been through three other ships," Velasquez added, "it isn't looking good."

"Salvage whatever you can," Kate commanded. "Castle, you're with me, we're gonna look into what the man on the Gemini told us, if we have to search this ship deck by deck."

Castle and Beckett took the lift up to the next deck, marked on the elevator codes as Steerage Class. The doors slid open to reveal - much like the Gemini – a corridor filled with starving refugees, many transferred from the Celestra. Castle's gaze was immediately drawn from one haunted, desperate face to another, until – to his surprise – a young woman cried out unintelligibly and launched herself bodily at him.

Castle barely had time to turn fully around before he was nearly tackled by the slender redhead who wrapped her arms around his neck in a near death-grip. Kate rolled her eyes in chagrin at first, thinking this another in - according to more ship's gossip from Ellis - a long line of women who'd thrown themselves at the _"dashing, Colonial hero"_ in his well-tailored uniform, but was quickly struck dumb by the truth of their exchange.

"Alexis?" Castle squeaked, pushing the girl gently back by the shoulders to get a better look at her, uncertain he could believe his eyes, which almost immediately began to well up with tears. Kate felt immediately ashamed of her first impression, unsure what to do with herself though everyone else in the corridor had suddenly disappeared as far as her partner was concerned.

"By the gods," Castle breathed as he pulled Alexis back into his arms, tugging her off her feet and spinning her around muttering nonsense words tearfully into her dirty red hair, "I thought I'd lost you Pumpkin."

Kate was almost relieved when an elderly woman pulled her aside, gesticulating at an old man lying prone on the deck nearby, speaking a language she didn't understand.

"What… what are you saying?" Kate turned toward the other refugees. "Does anyone here speak Gemonese?"

"Her husband is having trouble breathing," a blonde woman wrapped in a blanket carefully cradling her left arm translated, her eyes scanning the room nervously. It was immediately clear that a small group of the refugees did not take kindly to her presence.

"Get that trash out of here!" a middle aged woman - who appeared to be the ringleader of the group - hissed. "She should be fed to the daggits… dirty socialator!"

"Space her with the rest of the garbage!" another of the group chimed in, roughly tugging the blanket from around young woman's shoulders to reveal loose fitting, dirty clothing of expensive silk.

Alexis stepped back from her father to intervene, but the woman waved her off with her good arm.

"What happened your arm?" Kate asked, as the beginnings of a growing lynch mob caused her spine to straighten and her hand to drop to the grip of her laser pistol. Castle straightened up, pushed Alexis behind him and unsnapped the strap of his own holster. Kate had never noticed how tall and imposing he could be when he brought his full height and broad-shouldered frame to bear.

"There are others in greater need than I," the woman whispered, as though resigned to such rough treatment.

"Dad, we can't leave her here," Alexis implored as she slipped around her father, "one of them broke her arm, they might do something worse once we're gone."

"Mind your tongue, wretch," one of the bigger men hissed, "defending socialator garbage might get you some of the same."

The words had barely passed his lips before Castle was on him, bodily slamming the man against the nearest bulkhead without so much as telegraphing his movement, weapon pointed at the deck only by training and sheer force of will.

"You're gonna want to walk out of here," Castle warned darkly, his voice so low Kate could barely make out the words, "right frakking now."

"Ryan," Kate snapped into her headset while Alexis did her best to pull her father away from the man. "There's been an incident, I need you and Esposito on the Steerage Passenger deck, corridor "B" on the double mister!"

"Ok, Cap," Ryan replied, "on the way."

When the two of them arrived moments later, Kate waved them over.

"We've got patients for Galactica's life station," Kate noted pointing in the direction of the elderly woman whispering what sounded like nonsense words to her injured husband, then nodded toward the woman cradling her arm, "Since none of us speak fluent Gemonese, I've conscripted a native speaker. Get them all to the shuttle. I'm going up to the First Class Deck and find out what's going on here. Do your best to keep that man stable until we get back."

Kate turned to the crowd that had grown, her hand resting on the grip of her weapon. "We will do everything we can to make sure the food situation is sorted out, but unless you want to spend time in Galactica's brig, I'm ordering all of you to disperse, right now!"

The steel in Kate's voice along with Castle's imposing presence cowed the small knot of troublemakers who, thankfully had no stomach for a real fight. The crowd quickly filed out of the corridor, and the situation gradually settled down.

"Pumpkin," Castle whispered to Alexis, "I need to go with Captain Beckett. Go find your grams and stay with Ryan and Esposito, okay?" He turned and pinned Ryan with a sharp look, a glimpse of his former command style behind it.

"I'm trusting you to look after Alexis and my mother," he said, looking longingly back at his daughter, "I have a feeling Kate's gearing up to do something rash and she'll need backup."

With a menacing glare at the man who'd been ignorant enough to threaten his daughter in front of him, - who was presently also shrinking under Esposito's withering glare - he turned and stalked out after Beckett.

* * *

 **Cylon Command Basestar Alpha Zero One  
High orbit over Caprica**

A Cylon command centurian – notable due to his gleaming gold armor - entered the base-ship's audience chamber, stopped before the high platformand waited for the Imperious Leader to turn his command chair around to acknowledge its presence.

"By your command," it stated once under its leader's gaze. "Flight Leader Serpentine reporting."

Report, Centurian," The Imperious leader commanded, "on the final assault."

"All remaining humans on the colonial worlds have been exterminated," Serpentine replied without further prompting. "Ground units system-wide report word of civilian transports that escaped destruction to rendezvous with a warship."

"What sort of warship?" The Imperious Leader asked, sounding almost childishly furious. ' _Anger is a curious concept'_ it thought to itself, _'useless, illogical, but yet strangely satisfying.'_

"A battlestar," Serpentine replied, "the Galactica. According to his guard commander, the human traitor, Bracken attempted to keep this information from being disseminated."

The Imperious Leader's third brain had prepared him for such an attempt at duplicity, but also provided a solution for such an occurrence. Unlike his two predecessors over the past thousand yahrens, his third brain had been reprogrammed with human engrams, a modification deemed necessary given humanity's intransigence, which had dragged out the war of their extermination far longer than the Imperium Primus had predicted.

His unusual programming had given him an edge against the humans that his predecessors had lacked. Since he'd been brought online as Imperious Leader of this sector only ten of their yahrens ago, he had anticipated Colonial tactics with greater efficiency. He had concurrently discovered a gift for taking chances of his own which had helped him deal the humans serious defeats in multiple sectors.

His own personal base-ship had dealt the deathblow to the Battlestar Rikon and severely damaged the Pegasus at Proxima with only two-to-one numerical superiority. Standard Cylon battle tactics would have required at least a ten-to-one numerical advantage to inflict such casualties in the past.

His interrogation of the Rikon's first officer had been quite illuminating, even though she'd given him nothing of military value aside from her name and rank. Johanna Beckett's only other spoken words had been illogical, nonsensical profanity-laced outbursts concerning his non-existent parental lineage's lack of marital status, supplemented by whispered prayers for the well being of her mate and her sole progeny picked up by the listening devices in her cell prior to her execution.

Senator Bracken – who had been taken prisoner outside of the usual Colonial transit lanes two yahrens ago had proved to be a much more valuable strategic asset - albeit one that required occasional prompting to keep in check.

Bracken's assertions during interrogation - that the Empire would have little use for him or his human engram dominated programming once humanity was fully exterminated - could not be refuted by even his first brain's most basic logic circuits, thus leading to their current arrangement. An arrangement he was certain would need to be revised, given his human ally's current erratic behavior.

"Deliver a message to Senator Bracken," The Imperious Leader commanded. "Inform him that I am displeased by his attempts at deception. Make it clear that he shall either deliver me the Galactica and these fugitive ships, or his guards shall deliver me his head, rendering our arrangement null and void. Deliver this message personally. Commander."

* * *

 **Rising Star  
First Class Passenger Deck**

By the time Castle caught up to Beckett, she was accosting the door guard to the First Class lounge.

"I'm going to ask you nicely to stand aside just once," Kate threatened coldly, her hand caressing the grip of her laser pistol with cool, almost graceful menace.

"This is the Private Lounge for guests of Former Defense Secretary Reed and his private party. I was hired by Trans-Stellar…" the door guard stammered, but stopped short when Kate drew her laser pistol and pressed the barrel to his chest.

"Step. Aside," Kate growled the command as the door guard's face turned pale. "Right now."

"What's going on Captain?" Castle asked as if he were opening a discussion about the weather.

"Oh, nothing," Kate replied with the same cool banter, her pistol never wavering as the guard's face shifted quickly from pale to green. "This gentleman here was about to let us into the club area. Weren't you?"

The man's head bobbed quickly as Kate tapped the panel next to him with her free hand and the door slid open.

"The Colonial Fleet Thanks you for your cooperation," Castle quipped as they slid past the guard into the door, then turned back to her as she holstered her gun. "Katherine Beckett, you take me to the nicest places."

"I trust there is an explanation for this intrusion?" A commanding voice boomed from inside the club area. The voice of a man accustomed to being obeyed.

"Former Defense secretary Michael Reed," Kate stated coldly. "Would you like to make a statement before I place you under arrest?"

"Good," Reed replied, "you know my name. At least you won't have to wonder from where the blade fell."

"When I get back to my shuttle, I'll give you about a micron to meet me." Kate replied, ignoring his threat and responding with one of her own. "Or would you prefer that I turn the six levels of starving people below decks loose and let you take your chances with them?"

The man didn't back down an inch at her threat, but he did seem rather impressed.

"Captain, how about you join us in our prayer of gratitude for our deliverance from the Cylons." He offered, trying a little to late to _"turn on the charm"_.

"In case it's eluded you, Mr. Reed," Kate replied harshly, "over a hundred people have died since our _deliverance_ from the Cylons. Though none were due to starvation, given what I've seen on the ships I've inspected so far, it's only a matter of time."

Kate nodded in Castle's direction, "Lieutenant, notify Core Command that we have located a cache of food stores that I plan to distribute on this ship as far as they will go."

"Like hell you will." Reed scoffed, rising from his seat, again attempting to stare her down. "These stores belong to me and my guests."

"Does your wife share your feelings about denying food to starving people?" Kate asked, which seemed to strike a nerve.

"My wife?" he asked, his eyes haunted for a flicker of a second.

"Yes, your wife," Kate replied, not missing the nubile young woman who had until just recently been sitting on his lap, "I don't see her."

"Unfortunately," Reed replied, "she was unable to make the voyage."

"My sympathies," Castle added, he seemed to be genuinely sincere, even though the anger in his eyes that his daughter had been slowly starving below-decks spoke another tale. "From what I hear, she was a remarkable and compassionate woman."

"Yes," Reed replied softly, "she was."

"I'm sure she'd be moved by your period of _mourning_ , Mr. Reed," Kate replied before she keyed her headset mic. "Espo, this is Captain Beckett Castle and I will be returning shortly. Have Velasquez and LT report to the First Class Lounge to secure some unaccounted food stores. Her orders are to distribute them throughout the ship as far as they will go. If Mr. Reed objects, tell her she has my permission to shoot him."

* * *

Though Kate felt some personal satisfaction at helping at least the people on the Rising Star, she felt lingering resentment when her request to take Michael Reed into custody had been denied. His election by multiple ships to a seat on the newly formed Council of Twelve included diplomatic immunity. It irked her to no end that she couldn't touch him. She almost wished her threat to set loose the starving people on the Rising Star on him hadn't been an idle one.

While she and Esposito continued to grouse back and forth about it, making Ryan very uncomfortable in the pilot's seat, Castle was in the main passenger compartment of the shuttle taking information on the patients they were taking to the Galactica. A few more had come forward after they left and it was up to him to get their stories. A task under other circumstances he would have enjoyed immensely. This time, however the abused woman from earlier seemed reluctant and he could definitely empathize.

"Why don't we start with your name," he asked gently as Alexis handed her a cup of reconstituted hot chocolate she'd dug out of the shuttle's emergency kit while Castle splinted her broken wrist and gently helped her into the sling to keep it immobilized.

"My name is… Cassiopeia," she replied skittishly.

"That's a beautiful name," Castle replied, "means _"fairy queen"_ in Gemonese if I recall."

"I… I think so," she replied quietly, though it was clear that she felt nothing like one at the moment.

"Your designation?" Castle asked, though he was certain from the felgercarb back on the ship that he knew what it was, he needed confirmation for the official record.

"I… I'm a socialator," Cassiopeia began cautiously, but then seemed to recover some of her dignity, "It's an honorable profession, practiced with the blessings of the elders for over four thousand years! We're more than just surrogates for infertile women, we're midwives and child care providers…"

"I didn't mean anything," Castle replied respectfully, he had studied a great many topics in the Colonial Academy, even dabbled with writing. Colonial warriors were expected to understand and respect the customs of any colony they might be stationed on. "I was just curious what all of that fuss was about back there."

"That woman…" Cassiopeia replied with a slight shiver. "That woman and her companions were members of the Atori Sect, a small, but very vocal minority of Gemonese religious zealots. They don't believe in physical contact of any kind between genders except when sanctified by the priests during high worship of the sun-storm, which comes only once every seven years!"

"No wonder those little buggers are such good card players," Castle muttered in spite of himself, earning him a nudge in the ribs from his daughter.

"Dad!" she admonished rolling her eyes at him, though the exchange did earn them a small flash of a smile from Cassiopeia before she accepted the offer of a fresh blanket and curled up into herself on the unfolded section of seats to get some rest.

Castle watched his daughter gently tuck the blanket around the older woman and noted how pale and wan she was and the idea that he should get some food into her and his mother as soon as they got back to the ship. Though his mother seemed fine, physically he would also get her examined by a medical professional. Though Martha Rodgers had been overjoyed to see him, she had been far too quiet and withdrawn. They were all the family he had left and they needed him, now more than ever.

* * *

 _ ****Author's Note:** Sorry this took me so long, life kinda got in the way. I'm gonna have a lot more time on my hands for the next four weeks while I'm on vacation.**_


End file.
